Our J. C. Leyendecker paper print "Lifeguard! Save me!", was the Saturday Evening Post cover on August 9,1924. Measuring 11 x 14 inches, this archival pigment print was custom printed with wide-gamut archival pigment inks on 100% cotton acid-free fine art paper. The colors will last for more than a lifetime. This print commemorates the exhibition Under Cover: J.C. Leyendecker and American Masculinity, on view May 5, 2023 – August 13, 2023.
Between 1896 and 1950, JC Leyendecker painted more than four hundred magazine covers. During "The Golden Age of American Illustration", the Saturday Evening Post alone commissioned JC Leyendecker to produce 322 covers as well as many advertisement illustrations for its interior pages. No other artist, until the arrival of Norman Rockwell two decades later, was so solidly identified with one publication.
Under Cover: J.C. Leyendecker and American Masculinity examines the work and influence of J.C. Leyendecker (1874–1951), a preeminent illustrator and commercial artist who helped shape American visual culture in the first three decades of the 20th century through captivating advertisements including the legendary “Arrow Collar Man” and countless covers for the Saturday Evening Post. As a queer artist whose illustrations for a mainstream audience often had unspoken queer undertones, his work is especially revealing for what it says about the cultural attitudes towards homosexuality of the period.
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